Team Eight
by chickenwire
Summary: A girl with no confidence, a boy who doesn't listen, a boy who thinks he's a man, and a teacher who doesn't know what to do. This is team eight, and though now they are weak, in time, they will grow.
1. Beginnings

**Team Eight - Beginnings **

* * *

When Iruka-sensei told Kiba his team mates, he couldn't believe it. 

Naruto had been given Sakura, the smartest ninja in the academy, and Sasuke, the strongest.

_He _had been given a random girl he hadn't even noticed, who stuttered and was obviously going to hold him back, and a boy who thought he was above him.

He catches Shino's eye (or at least he thinks he does, he can't tell when he wears those stupid glasses) and swears that he will never lose to him.

He may be on a crap team, but he still has his pride.

* * *

When Hinata first met Shino and Kiba officially as a team, it was the worst time of her life. 

She remembered these people from class, Kiba was a strong minded, loud boy who voiced his opinions; Shino was quiet but firm, following rules, one minded.

She was nothing like them. She was quiet and weak, useless in every single way, a disgrace to her clan, to everyone.

She feels their accusing eyes on her, and bows her head in shame.

_Gomenasai_…

* * *

Shino was the last to arrive out of himself, Kiba and Hinata when their team first met. He stands in the shadows of the building and watches the boy play with his dog and the girl who stood away, head bent over, fingers twiddling. 

He knew he was the strongest without even fighting them.

He was above them.

He watches the girl and she fidgets, and he decided that she is not worth his time. His eyes rest on the Inuzuka, and he looks up.

Their eyes meet, and Shino sees defiance, a challenge.

Under his jacket, he smirks, and his bugs start to stir.

_You can try to beat me_, Shino thinks, _It will at least give me something to do_.

* * *

Kurenai was late when she met her team. 

"I am Kurenai, your new sensei. I will be leading you through your genin years. Now, tell me your names and your goals for yourselves in your lives."

"Kiba Inuzuka, To be stronger,"

"Aburame Shino, to be stronger."

"Hi-Hinata Hyuuga…T-To be st-stronger…"

A girl with no confidence, a boy with no respect, and another boy who thought he was already a man; this was her team. Still, they all had one thing in common, and, as far a Kurenai could tell, that was a good start.

"Good, for now on, we are to be known as Team Eight."

Their eyes bore into her, and she hopes they do not see the apprehension that flashes through her eyes.

_What do I do? ..._

* * *

_review S2 _


	2. Testing Strength

**Testing Strength **It was their first training session together as a team, and now they had all arrived, Kurenai felt her heart start to beat faster. She looks at the genin standing in front of her.

_Her _genin.

Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata.

They stare at her, heads raised to meed her gaze. She doesn't know what they're thinking, behind those stoic faces. They never seem to blink. She grips her hands tighter. Her pulse starts to hasten.

She takes a breath. She will keep calm, she will keep collected. She cannot allow them to see her fear. Fear shows weakness. Kurenai is not weak, she knows this.

She is strong.

"I will fight you all separately, to gain a better understanding of your strengths and weaknesses in combat," she raises a hand to Kiba, "you first, Inuzuka-san, then you, Aburame-san, and finally you, Hyuuga-san. After that, training will be over for the day."

She speaks evenly and distantly, using honorifics. She uses a tone she thinks is polite, because she does not know how else she is supposed to talk to them. She has never spoken to children, and she has never commanded an Anbu team.

This is alien to her, _they _are alien to her, and Kurenai does not like it.

Hinata and Shino move off the edge of the training ground, and Kiba takes his stance, dog by his side.

Kurenai puts her weight on her back foot, "Don't hold back."

She speaks coolly and poitely, like she would talk to a stranger. She is their sensei. It is best to keep distant.

At least, that is what she hopes.

* * *

"You first," Kuranai-sensei says, pointing to Kiba.

He nods, and the dog jumps from his head to the floor, ears perked. Kiba cannot help but grin. Hinata quietly walks past, head down. Shino passes in front of him, and Kiba catches his eye. He scowls.

_Just watch_, he thinks, _I'll show you_.

He adopts his stance, and Akamaru jumps down, bearing his teeth. He waits for three seconds, then springs into action.

He comes at her with a punch, aiming for her gut; he misses as she darts to the left.

Akamaru lunges for her shins, but catches only air.

Kiba turns, teeth bared, and finds her behind him. He raises a foot and kicks, but her body becomes sludge. He swears as his foot is pulled further in, he feels his weight tipping. Akamaru grabs pant leg pulls with all his might.

"Let go, Akamaru! You'll be sucked in too!"

The dog shakes his head, and growls. Kiba is in as far as his knee now, it is climbing up his body, around his limbs, it is almost at his neck.

He cannot help it. He screams.

Suddenly, the woman vanishes, and a Kunai is at his throat. He glances behind, and he sees his teachers face.

_Genjutsu…_

"You cannot dispel Genjutsu, nor tell it from real life?" He shakes his head, and she frowns, then nods, "Well, that will be all, Kiba-san."

He can feel Shino's mocking eyes penetrating him, and his face goes red in shame. He is filled with a sudden, indescribable hatred.

_I'll show you… _

_You're weak, dog-boy._

Shino does not take a stance when he fights Kuranai-sensei. He does not need too, his bugs will do his work for him.

She makes the first move.

Shino sends out a wave of singing, stinging insects. He watches as they come towards her, and her eyes open in alarm. They travel fast and furiously. She swings a kunai at them, to no avail. They crowd around her eyes and ears and nose and mouth, they find every possible opening and crowd into it.

Shino smirks, then, the kage-bushin disappears, and his bugs drop to the floor.

He frowns and glances around. He cannot detect her presence. He sends out his bugs to scout for her.

None return.

He sends out more, and more, and more.

He never gets an answer.

Shino begins to grow uneasy. He looks around himself, he can feel the eyes of his team…no…of the _strangers_ boring into him, judging him, mocking him.

He turns around, and a foot is thrown hard into his abdomen. He falls, his bugs unable to catch him, and sees his teacher over him, face in shadow.

"You know no self defence." It was a statement, not a question. He sees slight disappointment in her eyes, "I did not even have to use genjutsu to defeat you."

He flushes and pulls himself off the ground. He walks off the fighting grounds. He catches Kiba's eye, and he is overcome with a terrible, unspeakable hate.

_I'll show you_ he thinks.

* * *

Hinata starts to tremble; she cannot help it. Kiba had failed, Shino had failed. There was no chance she would be able to defeat Kurenai-sensei.

She takes the Hyuuga stance. Kurenai watches her for a moment, then springs at her. Hinata gives a small scream as a fist comes her way. She blocks it, and hits back, using the Hyuuga's fighting style.

Her fathers voice sounds in her head, _you are a shame to the Hyuuga._

She does not hit with as much force as she could, she does not hit with precision.

She meets air.

She feels a presence behind her, and the world turns black.

She awakes to Kurenai-sensei's face. It is not worried, but placid, emotionless. Hinata, though, does not see that. She looks in her sensei's eyes, and sees only one thing.

Shame.

She gets to her feet. Kurenai looks at her, "You…" she trails off, and Hinata knows what she will say, 'You are weak, you are spineless, you can never be a proper shinobi."

"You lack confidence," is what she says instead.Hinata stares at her, and Kurenai bows, "that is all for today, Hyuuga-san."

Hinata bows back, and Kurenai turns and bounds off into the forest. Hinata stands there, thinking. She lacks confidence. She pictures his face in her head, and feels that special strength that only _he_ can give her. She will find confidence, if that is what she needs to make him notice her.

She looks around, to see if her team mates had been watching her, to see if they had heard as well.

There is no one to see.

Hinata smiles, but she is not happy. She was the weakest link, the kink in the chain. Why would they wait for someone like her?

It's not like she's important.

She closes her eyes, and the sight of her sensei staring at her flashes into her mind, the red orbs seering into her, filled with such terrible things.

Hatred. Anger. Disappointment. Shame.

She stares at the eyes, and she watches as the face blurrs more and more, until she cannot tell who the eyes belong to, her sensei, or her father.

* * *

**Review S2 I may change the story setting-out after this chapter - **


	3. Reactions

**AN: **Sorry, everyone, Lent is so frustrating. Anyway, here's an update. Exception will be a little later. I am currently TAKING STORY REQUESTS or PAIRING REQUESTS, just so you all know. Enjoy! 

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**Reactions **

* * *

Shino arrives home. 

For normal boys with normal families, parents would be asking 'How was your first training session? Have you made friends with your team mates? Are you doing well? Are you hurt, in any way?' 

But Shino was not a normal boy, and so, he did not have a normal family. 

He arrives home to a house that is quite and echoing. He does not call out, as he enters the door, he does not make himself comfortable. You can only make yourself comfortable when you are in a home, a place where you lived and loved and relaxed. This place was no home. This place was a house, dead and separate, polite and quiet and uncomfortable. 

Shino _hated _it here. 

He walks across the hard floorboards towards the stairs, and pauses when he reaches them. He hears tapping, muttering, the soft, fluttering sound of movement. 

His parents are here. 

He steps on the stair in front of him loudly, slamming his foot down. He waits for a voice to call to him, to exclaim their surprise at him arriving home. He waited, even, for someone to yell at him to be quiet. 

No sound came, and Shino is not surprised. 

They did not care how he felt, where he went, they did not care about him or what he did, so long as he was strong and did not shame the Aburame name. He walks up the rest of the steps to his room. 

He did not care that they did not speak to him. Shino was independent, Shino was his own person. Shino was a man, and he needed no father to teach him what to do. 

He had figured it out on his own. 

* * *

"I'm home, father…" Hinata whispers. 

The man in front of her does not turn and look at her from where he is seated on the ground, kneeling elegantly, tea in front of him on the table. 

"How was your training session?" he asks her, but she can hear the cruelty beneath the words. _'How badly did you fail this time, Hinata?'_ is what he's thinking, _'How did you disgrace me?' _

"We did not train too heavily. Kurenai-sensei asked to fight each of us separately, to see how strong we each we-"

"How long did it take her to beat you?" 

She is silent. She does not know the answer – she had not been counting, she had not known that he wanted to know. 

"Were you the quickest to be defeated?" he asks, impatiently. 

She tries to think back. She cannot remember, she cannot remember at all. 

"Hai…" she says, because she _must _have been the weakest, the easiest to defeat. She was a foul, disgusting wretch, who failed at everything she was supposed to succeed at. 

"I am unsurprised." He replies. She bows her head. She had failed him again. 

She waits a few more moments, then turns to leave. 

"Hinata," he speaks, and she pauses, listening intently for some small ounce of praise. 

"You are the weakest in your team, but the Aburame boy and the Inuzuka boy are both strong. Do not hold them back. Unlike you, they may one day rule their own clan with conviction and strength." 

"Hai…father…" 

She leaves the room with a heavy heart, because they were only words he would speak to her for the entire week, and she had wasted them. She passes her sister Hanabi in the hall, and a moment comes when Hinata has the chance to greet her, to ask her how her day was. The moment passes. Hanabi heads to fathers room. 

Hinata stands outside the door, leaning against it, and tries her best to pick up words from the conversation. If she tries hard enough, she is able to pretend that she is in there with them, laughing and talking and belonging; and that, finally, for the first time in their lives…they were a family. 

* * *

"Mother…" Kiba says, when he arrives home that night, Akamaru in tow, "I had my first training session today." 

"Oh?" she says, turning from the table where she is sitting. Her pack of dogs is in front of her, and Kiba's sister is feeding them with red, bloody meat. His sister looks up and meets his eyes, "So, how'd it go?" 

"Kurenai-sensei asked us all to fight against her to see how strong we are…" Kiba gulped, afraid of what he was about to day next, "I…I lost…" 

"Well, I suppose that's why she's your teacher," his sister replies, and turns back to the pack. 

That did not make Kiba feel better. Losing, to the Inuzuka, was worse then death. They would always try anything and everything to assure victory. That's what his _father _had done. He had given up his life foe the success of Kohona. 

Kiba had, once again, failed to live up to the family name….to _his _name. 

Kiba's mother's reaction to him losing was a hard laugh, followed with a sharp, hard punch to the arm. 

"I didn't expect you to win against Kurenai-san, you idiot. She's much more advanced then you." She laughs again, "you're just a little kid, anyway, there's not much you can do for anyone!" 

Kiba blushes, "I can do heaps!" he says, defensively. 

The house goes silent. 

"I'll be the strongest ninja in Kohona!" he says. His mother's smile grows hard and both their eyes meet. Even Kiba, who knows he is not known for his observance, sees the tired look they try so hard to hide. 

"I'll be the strongest Inuzuka yet! I have to be! After all, I'm the man of this house!" Kiba gives a grin and raises his thumb, only to feel his cheek scream red as though it had been ripped in half, and feel himself falling to the ground. 

"You're as much the man of this house as Akamaru is head-wolf!" His mother says, "_I'm _more of a man then you are, Kiba. Don't go around saying such crap." 

Akamaru comes up to him and licks his cheek, and Kiba collects him up in his arms. 

"You can't even train that puppy properly," she continues, "look at it, acting like it's a little, pathetic…" she spits. Kiba sees red. 

_I'll show you…_he thinks, and he knows that Akamaru is thinking the same thing. 

* * *

Kurenai sits with the other sensei's at the bar. 

Every Genin team's sensei's had met at that bar every week since the academy had began. Kurenai remembers her own sensei coming here on a night. She had always imagined it as a warm, happy place full of friendship and laughter and stories. 

Now she was here, she just wanted to leave. 

"Shikamaru is very smart," says Asuma with pride, "he could easily be the next Hokage, if he was just less lazy! Already a day, and my favourite student is giving me trouble!" 

Kakashi laughs, "I know what you mean! Sasuke almost annihilated me today! He's amazing, for someone so young. I could hardly find time to read my book! The others though weren't as good, Sakura was fooled by an easy genjutsu, and Naruto!" He laughs again, "Oh, where do I start? Naruto has a long way to go to reach Sasuke's standard. Though he's strong, he thinks _after _he acts."

"I wish Chouji would do that! Instead, he thinks all about his stomach and doesn't do anything at all! He's almost as bad as Shikamaru!" 

The two men burst into laughter, and Kurenai gives a weak smile, but it does not help the worry she is feeling. 

She is doing something wrong. She _knows _she is.. 

She does not _have _a favourite student. She does not _have _a student she deems strongest. She seems to be missing something, some important aspect that all teachers need to be able to connect with people. 

"So, Kurenai-san!" Asuma says, putting his arm around her shoulders, "how's _your _Genin team going?" 

"You have Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino on your team, ne?" asks Kakashi. 

Kurenai nods, "hai, those are my students." 

"Are they strong?" Asks Asuma. 

"They are interesting," she says, because that's the only thing she can think of. The others smile and nod, "they seem interesting," says Kakashi, with a grin. 

Kurenai knows that she should feel more defensive about what Kakashi had just said about her students. Kurenai knows that she should challenge his statement with a 'what's that supposed to mean?' 

Instead, she is deathly silent, and the others continue to tell her about their own, much more interesting students. She pictures her team in her head, and feels a wave of shame come over her. 

The sad thing is, she does not know if it is shame in herself for not defending them…or shame in them, for not being _worth_ defending. 


	4. Session One

**

* * *

**

Session One

Kiba arrives first. It is four in the morning, and frost layers the ground. With Akamaru at his heels, he began to pummel the tree in their training grounds centre.

"Just wait, Akamaru! Today's the day we beat Shino!" he said, between punches. Akamaru barked in response. They punched until Kiba's knuckles bleed.

"Right, now we train together! Akamaru, dynamic marking!" His dog travels through the trees, perfecting his aim and technique. Together, boy and dog train.

They run until Akamaru's paws begin to bleed.

They kick until Kiba's leg is full of splinters.

They swim until Akamaru stops being able to move.

They lie together on the ground, breathing hard, looking at the violent blue sky. Kiba breathes in. He cannot be weak anymore. He had to become stronger, for everyone.

"We'll beat him today, buddy, for sure."

Akamaru gives a mumble. Kiba smiles at him, then looks away.

They both know he is lying. They cannot beat Shino, not at the moment.

Kiba closes his eyes, and even though he doesn't want to, he thinks back to yesterday. He remembers the times. He remembers how long it took Kurenai to defeat them.

Shino, 15 seconds. Hinata, 9 seconds, and him, Kiba…5 seconds.

Kiba was weak. Kiba was the _weakest_.

"Okay Akamaru! It's seven! We still have an hour until training begins, lets do some more punches!"

Kiba got up and began, once again, to pummel the wood.

Kiba could not be weak anymore. He had to be strong. He had to grow up.

How could he show anyone, how could he _protect _anyone, when he was this weak? Kiba punches the wood. His blood squirts his eyes. Akamaru looks at him worriedly, as he wipes his face with his arm.

"Stupid blood, made my eyes water…"

He smiles and laughs, but he doesn't see why.

He isn't fooling anyone. Not even himself.

_Weak…_

* * *

"Shino and Kiba, you spar together."

Shino smirked. The first training session they had together, and already he was going to be able to show the dog-boy just how good he was at pummelling people into the ground. Kiba took his position, dog by his side.

"Begin."

Shino sent out his bugs. Kiba dodged the first load, but smacked straight into the second. Shino smiled, then felt a pain in his leg. He looks down – the dog is there, teeth ripping into his flesh.

For the first time ever, Shino sees his own blood.

And he _hates _it.

With fury he cannot possibly fathom, he sends his swarm at it. It screams and howls. Shino forces the bugs down its throat, in its nose, he can feel the life leaving it, he can _see _it suffocating.

"_STOP!" _

A kunai is at his throat. The dog drops at his feet. The girl – he has forgotten her name – is kneeling over it, she has balms in her hand, she is crying. Kiba is running to the puppy, but Hinata holds it to herself, trying to revive it. Shino stares – hoping, hoping, hoping.

The dog breathes. It is alive. Shino clenches his fists.

He is not sure why he is so angry.

Shino glances around at the teacher behind him, who had not yet removed the kunai.

"It's just a dog." He says. Her reply is a look of repulsion. She takes away the kunai. Shino feels a trickle down the side of his neck. She moves away from him and kneels by the dog, talking quietly to the others, glancing at him once – only once – before she ignored him entirely.

He is still bleeding.

Shino stands alone, separated from the rest of his team. Shino had almost killed that puppy. He scowls. They care more about a dog then they do about...

He glares. What does it matter, anyway? He does not need them, he's strong enough without them. He can bandage his own wounds.

* * *

Hinata stares. She looks at the dog being thrown onto the ground. She stands up from where she is sitting, forgetting what she had been told – sit down and watch – and stares, wishes, _hopes_

The dog does not move. It does not breathe. It does not have a heart beat.

'No…' she stares at the rib cage. It does not move. No one is doing anything, no one is moving. The dog will die, the dog will _die_.

Hinata blinks. When she opens her eyes, it is not the puppy in front of her, it is her mother, silent, white, beautiful. Her chest is not moving. It will never move again.

She blinks again. The puppy comes back. It is not moving.

_No! _

Hinata runs towards it. She pulls out a small smelling lotion from her pocket. The smell will wake the dog up. It has to.

Blink._ Her mother is in front of her, her eyes stare at nothing._

Hinata rubs the balm underneath the puppy's nose, in hopes it will react to the sharp smell, "Please wake up, please wake up…"

Blink. _Her mother is nothing. She will never be something again. _

Hinata touches the fur. She strokes its back. She _wills _it to breathe.

'Please…' she whispers, 'please, please…'

Blink. _It is all her fault, it is all her fault…_

The rib cage doesn't move up or down, it remains silent, unmoving. Hinata rubs the back violently, desperately, trying to make it wake up, trying to make it breathe. The world is moving around her, but she doesn't react to it. All that matters is the puppy, all that matters is that it _lives_.

Blink. _Her father turns to her, face angry and grave. _

"PLEASE." It is a scream, a prayer – don't take another, please, don't take another. She waits. The puppy beneath her does nothing.

Blink. '_It should have been you, Hinata…' he whispered, 'It should have been you…' _

And then, the puppy breathes.

Hinata stares at it in her lap, lying on its side, helpless, tired, and breathing. It is breathing. It is breathing. It is _breathing_! She puts her face against its fur, "thankyou, thankyou…" she feels a wet tounge brush her cheek. She looks over at Kiba, who is next to her. He is looking at her with horror and sadness and fear. She hands him the puppy.

She watches as they are reunited. She touches her cheeks – they are wet. She looks in interest as the two hug and jump and laugh. She wonders what it's like, to have someone you love die, and then, come back.

She blinks. She sees the dog. _Her mother is gone, sunken into the hole, never coming back. _

It must be the most wonderful feeling in the world.

* * *

Kurenai was training a monster. Kurenai is training a monster, and she couldn't _see _it. She looks at her hands – they are trembling.

She is afraid.

Kurenai knows now who are her favourite members of the team now, it has become clear to her in the last few seconds. She is not like Kakashi and Asuma, favouring the strongest student. Shino is the strongest, she knows, but he is far from her favourite. He will never be her favourite, _never_, not now. He is a monster.

How do you train a monster?

_Kurenai has no idea what to do_

He is young. She is old. There should be a barrier between them, respect, admiration, Kurenai should be able to control him. She looks at the boy from where she is kneeling. He stares at her, face defiant behind his glasses. She is older. She should be able to _stop _him.

But she can't. There is something about him that stops her, and she knows what it is.

He knows himself more than she does. He has confidence in actions that she has never possessed. He never thinks of what _could _have been done, because he has no regrets.

He is not sorry.

He thinks he is better than the girl who saved the dogs life, than the boy who is crying because it was almost lost.

He thinks he is better than _her_.

_She has no idea how to stop him from thinking that. _

'It's only a dog,' he had said. Only a dog. Only a creature. Only a living being. Kurenai stared at him and narrowed her eyes. He is dangerous. He has to be stopped.

He may be strong, but she was a Genjutsu specialist, and so help her, she would _break _this illusion he was living in.

Because if she didn't break him, there was the possibility that he could break her.

She looks into the empty glasses and down at her shaking hands. Kurenai had to get stronger. She could _not _be weak, not anymore. If she was, if she couldn't, then he would fall even further.

Kurenai _refused _to raise a monster.

**I haven't updated this is ages, and felt bad. Also, lovely reviews have been left xD! I hope you like it. It's still got a little way to go, this one. More action is bond later. I'm just building characters. Kiba's a bit iffy in this one, but I wasn't sure where to put him in or what he should think, so, you know xD! **

**Do you like how I make Shino a crazy puppy-killing maniac? Mwahaha! I'm loving it. Many are probably wondering why? Well, basically, it's not because I think Shino's evil, I just think that he is...sad, I suppose. Anyway, I think Team Eight is perhaps the most disfunctional and is the hardest to mesh, even if their fighting styles work well together, their personalities...well, they don't mix well (at least, not at first) and I thought that this was a good way to show that. **

**Besides. Puppies eat flies all the time. xD! **

**Sorry, I'll really try not to take so long next time!! xD**


	5. Comparisons

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* * *

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Comparisons

Shino hates his 'team.'

He hates their glances at him as he walks with them down the street to the Hokage tower after missions to retrieve some sort of lost piece of clothing. He hates the way they ignore him when he stares pointedly back. He hates the way his 'teacher' asked questions directed at the other two and ignored him. He hates the way they let her.

Shino hates his 'team.'

Shino hates these strangers.

When they are walking along the street together Shino hangs back and stares holes into their backs. He felt the gazes of other teams as they walked along the street. Pitying stares at the boy who would never belong, the boy that even the weakling Hyuuga, the pathetic dog-boy, the failed teacher had abandoned.

The stupid little mutt walks by their side, welcomed and belonged and loved even though it was _weak _and _pathetic _and could do nothing to save anyone.

Shino hates his 'team,' and he can tell from the way they avoid him and curse him through silent lips that he is hated back.

And Shino clenches his fists and narrows his eyes and tells himself he does not _care _what those idiots think of him.

Shino _hates _his 'team.'

Shino _hates _that dog.

* * *

Team Kurenai meet Team Asuma on the street.

For a moment, Kiba thinks that they will pass them, but they do not. Asuma hails Kurenai with a wave and smoke fills his nostrils. He feels Hinata visibly shrink behind him and can sense Shino leaning against a wall somewhere, segregating himself from the team.

He stares hard at the team in front of him. The lazy-ass, the fat kid, and the stuck-up. Kiba felt himself smirk. His team may be crap, but at least it was better off then _theirs_. Those three hated each other.

Their team would never work.

"Yo." Says Shikamaru. Kiba nods in return. Ino mutters something into Chouji's ear and the boy gives a laugh, earning a half-assed smirk from Shikamaru. Their eyes travel from Kiba to Hinata to Shino. Ino mutters something again and Shikamaru's smile widens.

Kiba's cheeks begin to grow hot.

Asuma says something to Kurenai then gives a single command. The team turn and walk away, Ino leaning over to Asuma and said something, the whole team bursting into laughter.

Kiba watches them go and feels his palms sweat.

They were laughing at _them_.

Kiba turns and looks at his team. Kurenai, compared to Asuma, was cold and broken. Hinata, compared to Ino, was pathetic and useless. Shino, compared to Chouji, was cruel and untrustworthy.

Kiba, compared to Shikamaru, was a stupid little boy who couldn't lead anything.

He feels a lump in his throat.

His team would _never _work.

* * *

In the middle of the street she meets her cousin.

His team is around him, of course, and her team around her, but it seems like it is only them. A world of their own. The world of the Hyuuga.

Forever segregated.

He meets her eyes with such cold, hard _hatred _that she gasps. She tries hard to look back at him but finds her eyes drifting down to her feet, her shoulders slumping. Neji leans closer to her, eyes sharp, "Ohaiyo gozaimaru, Hinata-_sama_."

He spits the last words at her like they are some sort of disease. Hinata reels back. She looks around but no one has noticed the tension between her and him.

"Neji-nii-san…" She replies softly.

His eyes harden to diamonds and anger and malice radiate off him, "Don't you _dare _call me that," he says in a voice that is low and quiet and naught above a whisper. She feels her heart drop into her stomach.

He wants her dead.

Her first instinct is to run and hide, to get away from him and his eyes and his hatred. She steps backwards and looks hastily around her for something, someone to hide behind.

She sees only her team.

She looks back at her cousin, but he is already moving away, his sensei and fellow team mates following him also. Hinata clasps her hands in front of her and looks around herself again.

Her team stands separate from each other. Her sensei in front, refusing to look back at them; Kiba following her stubbornly behind but keeping his distance, and Shino behind them all, so far away as to look like he is walking of his own accord.

And Hinata is hit with a realisation.

She is all alone. There is no one to hide behind.

She is afraid.

* * *

"Kurenai!" Yells the silver-haired ninja.

She does not want to stop but knows she must. Tact warranted it, though she would much rather ignore him.

The man comes up to her, his perfect students behind him, hand aloft and eyes shining as if revelling in some personal joke.

She tries hard to tell herself that the joke is from the book he has in his hand, and not from her team. Gradually, with painful slowness, his and her genin mix together and begin to speak. Kakashi comes close to her and takes his usual stance.

"How are you going?" He asks her.

She notices his free eye glancing behind her to her team. Hinata's face is red and she has been reduced to stuttering when asked questions by the other team. Kiba was speaking loudly and lying about a mission they had just been on. Shino leant against the wall and did not speak.

Kurenai feels her heart beat faster as Kakashi's pitying stare turns to her.

She feels a wave of embarrassment

"Fine," she replies.

"Good…"

There is a moment of terrible awkwardness before Kakashi finally signals to his students that it is indeed time to depart. The four leave with high heads and strong backs. The genin walk together in a firm, strong line that could not be penertrated. Kurenai senses her own students behind her.

She feels disapointment.

Because Hinata is no Sakura, Kiba is no Naruto, and Shino is no Sasuke.

She wants to turn and run, she wants to hide her students away where no one can ever see them, keep them in a place where they can never embarrass her.

She wants to hide the fact that they are the weakest team in Konoha…

…and she was not strong enough to teach them.

Because she is no Kakashi.

* * *


	6. Starting

**Starting**

* * *

"Who wants to put their teams forth to be chuunin?" Asks the Third.

Kurenai feels her palms sweat.

She has been dreading this, oh lord she has. The time when Kakashi and Asuma truly shine above her as better teachers. The time they show that she is unable to teach compared to them, because she did not train her genin enough to attempt chuunin yet.

Sure enough, Kakashi steps forward, and so does Asuma. Kurenai bites her lip and closes her eyes.

Then walks forward.

She can feel surprised stares on her back but she refuses to acknowledge them. She is Kurenai. She is the best genjutsu artist to ever grace the city of Konoha. She will not back down to Asuma and Kakashi. She will show them.

"We do." The three say simultaneously.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Kurenai swallows and realises with a leaden breast that if any of her students die then it will be all her fault.

She does not feel as guilty as she knows she should.

* * *

When Kurenai tells them they are going for the chuunin exams, he can't help but wonder if he is hearing properly.

But of course he is, Inuzuka's have perfect hearing.

He throws his head in the air and howls and grabs Akamaru and spins around in circles crying, "Arigato Kurenai-sensei! Arigato! Arigato! Arigatooo!"

This was it. His chance to show everyone.

Naruto. Shino. Sasuke. Shikamaru. Chouji.

He was _just _as strong as them! He was just as worthy as being on a team! He was just as worthy as being a genin! He was just -

He turns to his Sensei, smile wide, and sees fear flash in her eyes. His smile faulters. He realises, suddenly, that he has been training with his team for almost an entire month now and has not learnt anything.

He would have felt fear, but he was an Inuzuka. They do not even know the meaning of the word.

Instead, he stands up taller and fixes his Sensei with a feirce gaze, "I'm going to become a chuunin!"

He knows she doesn't believe him. He knows she knows he doesn't care what she thinks. He's proven people wrong before.

* * *

All Shino can think is 'Yes, finally.'

His chance to get out of this pathetic team.

He is easily the strongest genin, though the Uchiha posed a slight threat. He would defeat the Uzumaki and the Haruno and all the other genin he had to to win that chuunin title. He would crush them with his bugs. He would make them scream for mercy and show them the true power he posessed.

His bugs move under his skin and he feels young and powerful and perfect.

He would get it, and he would get out of this hell hole of a team.

He looks with scorn at the Hyuuga, who is barely worth her family name, and the Inuzuka, who is the epitome of his.

He looks at the teacher who is afraid of him, and at the stupid, useless animal that they think is better then him.

He would leave them in the _dust. _

* * *

Hinata stays behind in the training ground as the others travel off, the news leaves her heart leaden and her feet stationary.

Kurenai did not say it, but she knows from Neji-nii-san and from the other people at the compound. If she does not go, then Shino and Kiba cannot compete.

She feels her knees start to shake.

There is no way she is strong enough.

She pulls her hands up to her chest and clenches her eyes and stabs her nails into her arms until they bleed and welt.

If she goes, she will be killed.

If she does not go, her team would hate her forever.

She stands there for what seems like hours.

Death or hatred?

Hinata breathes in deep and places her hands by her side. She makes a choice. She would rather die then choose hatred.

She got enough of that alive.

* * *


	7. Others I

**OTHERS - I**

**

* * *

**

**Kakashi **

He feels sorry for her because she obviously has no idea what she's doing.

Kurenai was a smart person and a good fighter, but he knows she is even less capable of teaching then he is. And that's saying something. She has her hands full with that Inuzuka kid; and when he sees them on the street he is immediately reminded of Naruto.

A more annoying, less intelligent and unhygenic version of Naruto, to be exact.

When he looks at her though; he can see the strain in her eyes and he knows that she has no idea what to do with him. He sighs and feels sorry for both of them.

A teacher who can't teach is pitiable. A genin who doesn't have a good enough teacher to control him is dead.

**Asuma **

He doesn't like that Shino kid.

It's something about his eyes, the way he looks at them with distain. At his _team _with distain. As though he's better then them. Better then _everyone_.

And yeah, looking at his team, he can see why he thinks that. Because she's weak, and he's stupid, and Kurenai - for the love of God - doesn't even seem to care.

But that's not he point, and he knows it, and he knows that Shino kid does too. You don't get better by thinking your better; you don't learn by ignoring your teacher.

Even _if _your teacher doesn't seem to know anything.

**Gai**

He remembers her name from when Neji talked about her; but she doesn't seem like the person he described at all. She's small, and timid, and her eyes are big with fear all the time - even when there's nothing to be afraid of. He thinks maybe he is mistaken, but then he hears Kurenai say her name and he knows he was right the first time.

He looks at her, bend over and shaking and all alone, seperated from everyone, and he doesn't see how she is any different to how Neji is. Was. Used to be.

He notices how her eyes dart and her lips shake and how her hands are ever moving; and he feels angry and upset that _he's _the one noticing it and _he's _the one caring - because that's Kurenai's job, not his, and goddamnit he has his hands full enough with one Hyuuga to not have to worry about two -

And then he looks at Kurenai, and sees how her eyes dart and her lips shake and how her hands are ever moving, and his anger dies in his throat and he shakes his head. He can be of no use here.

He moves on.

**Iruka**

He's not sure that Kurenai is sane when she says she wants them to fight in the Chuunin exams - because look at them, just _look _- he knows he is no jounin and no genius, but even he can see that they're doomed to fail. Gai could wait a year, so why couldn't she?

When he protests he doesn't just do it for Naruto (even though he knows he was his main reason. He will always be his main reason.) he does it for them; because he knows failure when he sees it and it is perfectly personified in those three; and the one thing he's scared of most, the very one thing, is burying his students, and he knows if they leave then he will have to do that.

He is not ready to do that.

**3rd Hokage**

Usually, there's only a few children left over - a few that don't quite fit neatly into teams, who he has to throw in with anyone and take a gamble and pray it will pay off. This time though, there were three of them and a teacher who had no idea what she was doing - and he knows he should have worked at it harder; that he should have mixed and matched and made the other teams _less _perfect so that their team would work. But he put them together anyway because he had thought - no, he had _hoped - _

But he should have known it wouldn't work out, because look at them - the Inuzuka, Hyuuga, Aburame and Kurenai to top it all off. The wrong team. A _broken _team.

And he feels guilty.

Because they're off now, going to the chuunin exams, and he knows they will either die, or fail, or disband. There was no other way it could happen; because he knew - he knew from the start that they would never work.

He signs and puts his hands over his face. Sometimes, there had to be sacrifices. He had made four.


	8. Family

**_Family _**

_It was tradition for sensei's to talk to parents when their children were put up to train in the chuunin exams, so he shouldn't have been surprised when he opened the door to find Kurenai-sensei._

But he was.

He curses himself angrily for being so stupid as to open the door. He should have left it. He should have left her standing there alone on his doorstep. He should have stayed in the scroll room and read and ignored the doorbell. He should have ignored _her _for a change.

But it is too late now.

"Shino-san," she says with a small bow, "I am here to speak to Aburame-sama, is he here?

"No. I am alone."

He notices the poorly disguised surprise in her eyes. He glares daggers of fire through his glasses and tries to burn away her face.

"He will be fine with me competing in the chuunin exam," he answers the unsaid question, "goodbye."

He closes the door in her face. He waits, half expecting her to knock again, but there is no sound, just the echo of his heart in his ears and his breath in the corridor and his bugs under his skin.

Shino was alone. And that's the way he wanted it.

* * *

Kiba sits between his mother and his sister with his head down and his fists clenched, "Thankyou for inviting me Inuzuka-san," Kurenai-sensei said with her usual toneless voice.

His mother laughs, "It's the least we could do after you decided to accept Kiba!

Kiba clutches his teeth together as to women around him laugh. Akamaru licked his ankle.

"But it also depends on Kiba," Kurenai says and her voice is as meaningless as her words. His family and sensei turn to him, "Kiba-san, do you wish to fight in the chuunin exams?"

He glances around at the women surrounding him and suddenly feels like a stupid little boy who has no idea what he wants or why he may want it.

"It is very dangerous," Kurenai says again and she links eyes with him

"That's true," his mother seconds, "And you're pretty pathetic, Kiba!" She laughs loudly and his sister brushes his leg comfortingly, "If you don't think you're ready, Kiba," Hana whispers softly, "You don't have to do it."

He looks from his sensei to his sister to his mother. No, he thinks. No. You're my family. You're supposed to be _supporting _me. He catches eyes with his mother and though she tries desperately to hide it, he sees it flash in her eyes. _You don't think I can do it._ He says to himself in sheer disbelief, _you don't think I can do it? Do you?_

_ He stands up violently and steps back so he can look into all their eyes equally, "I don't care. I'm entering the exam."_

"Good," says Kurenai.

He waits for his mother and sister's approval, but it never comes. The back of his eyes begin to sting and his throat feels like a razor has slipped down it. He tells himself it's from the spicy curry, and leaves the room.

* * *

She stands outside with clenched fists and a back so taut it is like wire

Hinata almost wished she hadn't overheard her sensei and her father, but she had and there was no going back because he had said it and she had heard.

She had always hoped that there were some slight feelings for her on the side of her father. She always prayed that his dislike of her was not as deep as it seemed to be. But it was, she can see that now. He hates her more then anything in the world. He hates her more then he hates the elders and more then he hates the hokage and more then he hates her cousin.

Kurenai comes out of the room and Hinata can feel her eyes on her, but she doesn't look up at her because that would be giving in. She doesn't want to see the pity and remorse and sadness. She doesn't want to see.

"He…he doesn't…" Kurenai's voice is strained, "He didn't know you were here."

Hinata says nothing.

Kurenai leaves after a stuttering pause, and Hinata leans against the wall. Behind her she can feel her father deactivate his byakugan. He knew she was there. He knew she could hear him.

He just didn't care.

* * *

Kurenai arrives home with a heavy heart and heavier limbs. She had not walked hard or far today but she feels as though she has run a marathon.

She opens the door to her cold apartment and sits down in the one chair. She uses one of the three sets of cutlery she has to eat some instant ramen she had in her single, half-empty cupboard. She does not turn on the television because she does not have one, she does not turn on the lights because there is no point

She is the only one here. There is no one else to see.

After an hour she heads off to her bed and sitting in the covers at night she cannot help but think that her team, at least, doesn't seem as divided as it first was.

She feels something hot streak down her face and she brushes at it defiantly. None of them had a family. All of them were alone.

They were all alone, but, at least, they were all alone together.


	9. Outside

**_Outside _**

The more she watches them the more she feels like she is on the outside.

Kurenai can tell they're not _friends _ - she knows Kiba and Shino hate one another, she knows Hinata stands on the outside and looks in and Shino pushes them away and Kiba...well, he was just bored of the whole thing.

But it did seem to her that there was a something between them, the way they looked at her, that united them against her. And she didn't like it.

It made her feel like she couldn't be trusted, and when she thinks back to the families and the houses she feels angry about this - because she was lonely too, damnit, and none of them seemed to care about _that_. She is angry that she is alone when there are the four of them, even though Shino does everything he can to make it seem like he is not a part of them, and she hates that none of them ask her how she is when they meet her for the mornings.

She hates that they think she is cold and unreliable and unfeeling. She hates that they compare her to _them_.

So, when she sees Kiba walking down the street on a weekend, she calls out to him and offers a greeting. He turns to her and looks surprised, eyebrows raised and mouth open, but he recovers with a wave and - not a smile, but a twitch of the mouth - and then walks off again, dog at his heels.

It is not much, but it is something, and Kurenai feels her shoulders lose tension, as though everything was starting to make sense - finally, at last, she knew something that she could do.

It was time to bridge the gap between them.

* * *

Even though she is kinda weird, Kiba thinks Hinata's alright. He likes her more then Shino, which isn't hard since the guy is a complete bastard, and unlike Kurenai she makes eye contact with him when she says goodbye at the end of every training session. So yeah, he decides after the end of the second week or so, he likes her. She's an alright chick.

One weekend he is walking down the street and he sees her, and even though it has only been a week or two and he isn't sure if that's long enough to greet her in public he calls out her name, "Hinata!" and puts up an arm in greeting.

When she turns around and sees him she looks genuinely surprised, and Kiba is taken aback by the sheer _feeling _he can see in her eyes. She is a few meters away, but even though it is a quite a distance, he can read the expressions of surprise and then curiosity and then sheer, unbridled _joy _that sweep across her face before she raises a hand at him and gives a small smile, and Kiba isn't sure what to do, so he gives a quick nod and turns off the path that would have lead him towards her.

If he hadn't known better, he would think that he was the first person to ever greet her on the street. Her face flashes in his eyes again and Akamaru barks at his heels.

"I know boy - what the hell was that?" _seriously? What was it? He couldn't handle this kind of thing - emotion. It wasn't his domain. _"I don't think I'll do that again!"

* * *

When Kiba greets her outside of class it seems to mark a change for her, that maybe things could change, that maybe she may finally make friends? Aquantences? It didn't matter what it was - it was better then anything she'd had before. And she knew that it meant that she had to change as well.

So, the first time Hinata sees Shino outside of training she does not know what to do. She darts behind a tree, in case he sees her, and stares out through branches and leaves.

He is standing against a wall with arms crossed and his head lowered, waiting, she assumed, for a friend to walk past - and she didn't want to disturb him, did she? Just because she didn't have any friends, didn't mean she had to bother him when he was trying to meet up with hers. And they did not talk in training. And he did not seem to like her. And maybe she should just go? Maybe she should just pretend she never saw him and let him meet up with people that actually matter?

But she remembers Kiba, and she remembers the hope that maybe - _maybe? _- there were people out there who will not ignore her on the street. And maybe Shino needed to know that too.

"H...Hello, Shino," she says, finally, stepping out, but he does not look at her or acknowledge her or even take a glance in her direction. Minutes pass. Nothing.

Hinata feels heat rising in her cheeks and looks fast at the ground, "it - it was lovely to see you!" she says, too high and too fast, and turns and leaves.

Of course. Of course, he does not want to talk to her. Who would want to talk to her? No one. No one would.

And especially not _him_.

* * *

When Hinata says hello to him in the street Shino is not sure what he should do.

He is filled with surprise first, because he did not think she noticed him, and then he is filled with something else he does not know the name of. It is the first time he has felt something like this and he does not like it. He does not like the way his stomach squirms and the smile that wants to play on his lips. He does not like that she noticed him, just like he noticed her. He does not know what he is meant to do or say, because no one has spoken to him before and no one has ever noticed him before, so he says nothing, and she leaves.

He knows he is over thinking it when he ponders it at night time. He knows he is being idiotic when he goes up to her the next monday when they train and says, "Hello, it was nice to see you on the weekend."

But the way she smiles at him, with relief and happiness, and the way she says in her soft voice, "Thankyou very much, Shino - did you have a nice day?" makes him think that maybe it was okay, to feel idiotic sometimes. Maybe it was okay, sometimes to be happy and be clouded with emotion.

Kiba comes a few minutes later and they turn away from him and talk together, Kiba doing most of it, Hinata smiling and nodding and twiddling her thumbs, and Shino is suddenly aware of ho cold it seemed to be on this side of the wall, forever looking in.

He did not always have to be on the outside, did he?


	10. Training and Changing

**_Training _**

The first time they trained was a disaster, and the second, and the third. Kiba wasn't sure what it was about Akamaru and him, but they couldn't seem to bite or scratch or punch or kick hard enough - Kurenai escaped, Shino defeated them. They never fought with Hinata.

Kiba tries to hide it but he is scared about the chuunin exams. It is too easy for people to defeat him, he realises - it is too easy to find his weaknesses and it is too easy to knock him down.

He needed to step up.

He needed to beat Shino.

Akamaru and himself get up early in the mornings and they practice turning his fur red as blood, and Kiba pounds his fists into trees until they are swollen and bruised, and then hides them behind gloves.

The fourth time they trained was a distaster. And the fifth. And the sixth. But their seventh match against Shino, Kiba landed a hit so hard it knocked the boy on his back.

Five seconds later Kiba was pinned on his side, bugs threatening to invade his mouth and suffocate him, slowly and painfully.

But that was not the point. The point was, he had won.

He catches eyes with Shino and feels himself smirk at the look on his face.

Victory or not, Shino knew the point of that too.

* * *

She wonders if Kurenai-sensei does it on purpose. If she is aware that Hinata always fights alone, or with her.

Hinata doesn't think she would mind so much, really, if it wasn't for the fact that it was _only _her that could not fight with them, and it was _only _her that sat back and watched while the rest of them sparred.

She was sure Kurenai had a good reason to keep her back, and she knew she should be thankful, really, because she was so weak, and she had so little practice, that shouldn't she be grateful for any time to practice?

But the chuunin exams are coming up, and she thinks that while maybe Kurenai may want to train the others up to make sure they survive, she is also hoping that maybe they will protect Hinata as well.

But she knows they will not do that.

It has been her since she was six and her father saved her and her uncle died. It has been her since her family left her behind and her father called her weak. She is not strong, or tall, or smart, or pretty - but she is all she has got, and she knows she needs to work harder, if she is going to survive this.

So she decides that maybe, this time, she will not wait until the others are done and see if Kurenai will do anything for her. She decides she will not be a burden to them, like she was to everyone else - because isn't it time she learnt to take care of herself?

So when the others are training, Hinata goes for a walk to find a way to train herself.

She finds a waterfall.

* * *

The first thing Kurenai does after they finish is offer to take them out for dinner. She says it before any of them have the chance to leave, and there is a tension in her back as she waits for their answers. Kiba, she is sure, will take the offer - and Hinata, maybe, if it means she can wait a little longer before coming home. Shino, though, is harder. She still isn't sure if he wants to know them. Of the hatred, and the monster, that lies behind his eyes.

But he is the first to accept. And then Kiba. And last Hinata. And it hits her, suddenly, how little she actually knows about them.

She wants to take them for ramen, but she sees Kakashi is there, and when she tries barbecue she sees Asuma, and there is a moment of panic in her heart as she realises that she has no where left she knows where she can take them -

And then she sees it.

It is small, and looks lost against the city which is so big. It has small windows, is dark and shady - but not dirty, she notices, in fact, pristinely clean. It sells sushi and sashimi and hot green tea, with some fried rice and noodle dishes and for desert it has an array of jellies and cream tarts, and she takes them there to eat. The conversation is stilted, and awkward, and they all leave within half an hour - but Kurenai feels something, something that feels a little like promise and a little more like hope, and a whole lot like change.

Whether it was good or bad, though, she still couldn't decide.

* * *

Shino still hates them.

He still hates their smiles and their laughs. He hates how the three of them walked in a line and he walked behind - the dog, the _dog_ - more worthy to walk with them then he is. He hates the way they look at him, as though he will snap all of their necks without thinking twice about it, as though he was on edge and they had to watch him constantly.

He hates them - he know that is what he feels for them, more then anything.

But there is something else there now, too. Hiding deep in the back of his heart, that stuck out when Hinata met eyes with him and smiled, or Kurenai complimented him on a move. There was something behind the hatred now, creeping up within him, and Shino didn't know what to make of it.

He knew it made him lighter, and made him work harder, and he knew, sometimes, that it hurt him (he would never admit that though. Never. Never.) And he wonders, sometimes, if it was right to think and say that he hates them - because the thing in the back of his heart poked and prodded him, and he wondered -

But then he sees Kiba and that dog. And then the dog bites him, or Kiba lands a punch, and Kurenai compliments them and Hinata smiles at them, and he crushes that little something in the blackness of his heart.

No.

He hates them.

He_ hates __them. _

And maybe, in the exams, he will finally find a way to get rid of them.


End file.
